RELATED TOPIC:
AN ACCOUNT OF MY HUT, BY CHÔMEI

RELATED TOPIC:
KENKÔ's ESSAYS IN IDLENESS

RELATED TOPIC:
NOH DRAMA

Robert Oxnam :: Much attention has centered on the lord-vassal relationship.

H. Paul Varley :: One aspect of the warrior way, the lord-vassal relationship in Japan, that sets it apart quite distinctively from Europe, is that the Japanese tended to conceive of this relationship in kinship terms, or fictive kinship terms.

Now, we see the development of warrior bands from the beginnings of warrior society in the late ninth and tenth centuries. Originally or initially the beginning of these bands comprised warriors who were related by blood. In other words, they were families or family groupings. But later on, a people who were not akin were brought into the warrior bands. And then the lord-vassal relationship included both kin and non-kin, and yet, there was always this tendency to conceive of it in fictive kinship terms. To see the lord as the parent and the vassals as the children. We can see this actually throughout Japanese history and even today.